Tesco has promised to honour its competitors' coupons at 43 of its stores for the "foreseeable future".

The vouchers typically offer amounts such as €7 or €8 off people's shopping when they spend €40 or more, and Dunnes used this marketing ploy particularly heavily over Christmas to get shoppers in.

The offer to honour its rivals' vouchers will apply in 30 Tesco outlets in Dublin and another 13 around the country, though it will not include smaller Tesco Express stores.

CAMPAIGN

A spokesman said the move was aimed at reassuring customers that "nobody will lose out by shopping with Tesco".

It will be run alongside its Price Promise campaign, which offers customers money-off vouchers if their shopping is more expensive than it would be at the German chains Aldi and Lidl.

"We know how time-consuming and stressful it can be for shoppers to travel from one store to another to redeem their spend-and-save coupons. So we thought we would make it easier for them by allowing our customers to redeem competitor spend-and-save coupons at Tesco," said Richard McKeown of Tesco Ireland. The move comes as Tesco's place as the country's leading retailer is coming under threat, with its market share falling from 27.7pc a year ago to 26pc.

With the acquisition of Superquinn giving it serious market presence in Dublin, along with continued strong regional growth, SuperValu is now nipping at Tesco's heels, with 25.2pc market share.

SuperValu said in a statement: "Consumers are clearly voting with their feet and are choosing to shop with SuperValu because of our unique combination of value, fresh food leadership and our commitment to Irish suppliers and local communities across the country," it said.

"Our customers know where they can get the best value from their vouchers."

Dunnes did not respond to our request for a comment.

Tesco said this new marketing initiative followed a pilot scheme in Wexford and Portlaoise at Christmas which had proven successful with customers.